Buying back and unpacking abandoned packages is part of a new fashion that comes from a good feeling: that of avoiding waste. Except that the trend is not without risk, and scams are never far away.
We might as well say it right away, buying abandoned packages is completely legal, the anti-waste law of 1er January 2022 having passed this way. On YouTube, on TikTok and elsewhere, unpacking lost packages has become part of the landscape. If the practice gains followers in one direction or another and plays on its “surprise bag” effect, it is not without risk. You may come across scams.
Abandoned packages resold completely legally
On the positive side, no consumers were robbed. By taking over a so-called abandoned package, you will not harm your neighbor. The principle is simple: legal auctions are organized throughout France every year. La Poste is also organizing its own on 1er December in Nantes.
The auctions are fueled by abandoned parcels which may be lying around in post offices or parcel relays, because they have not been claimed, distributed, or because they have an incorrect address, for example.
Given that the destruction or throwing in the trash of unsold items has been prohibited since the anti-waste law, companies, in addition to La Poste, have been able to specialize in recent months to buy entire pallets of packages from delivery companies, for put them on sale, at more or less advantageous prices, in batches of 5, 10, 20 or even 100 kilos. Pallets that individuals can purchase.
Beware of scams, which are multiplying in this attractive market
Like any practice that can put glitter in our eyes, the sale of abandoned packages attracts scammers. If YouTubers buy some of the lots put up for sale to make videos and generate a few more views with an attractive concept, some individuals are unfortunately malicious.
On social networks like Facebook, certain pages or groups promote so-called particularly attractive offers from Amazon, behind which scams are actually hidden. The promise attracts: for 1 or 2 euros, coming across a mystery package and recovering a potential smartphone, a connected watch, a video game or a piece of jewelry, obviously, that makes you want it. But these deals are too good to be true, and Amazon doesn’t resell its abandoned packages. Moreover, legal sales do not include – with some exceptions – such lots.
In a not so distant genre, and still on Facebook, scams are multiplying around very “consumer” subjects, such as certain subscriptions or SNCF cards which are allegedly offered at a knockdown price. Fallacious schemes that irritate the railway company and those who may be trapped. So be careful, an offer that is too good always remains suspect.
Sources: Clubic, France Inter
4